The lives of creatives are a fascinating thing. We're always moving, dodging, trying to keep our footing as we reach for the next thing. I suspect that is in our nature, and it just part of what we do. In light of that, it is with bittersweet awareness that we are forced to say that our former Editor in Chief is taking a step back. She'll still be involved in all the work we do, and in all the projects that we have in the backlog.

Naturally, this will result in a slight change in how we do things, but we are still committed to giving you the best stories we can from our little corner of the publishing world.

Its been a long time since you heard from us, but that doesn't mean we haven't been hard at work. One of the products that we've been working on is Granny Gangs of Whellem Lane. The prologue for this series is out now, available to get and put into your very hands!

It is always about food - and these grannies are ready to go to war over it. Gorchuskyy and O'Reilly each head their own gangs, and they're fighting over who gets to sell baked goods. While they're focused on their war, who knows what hides in the shadows, or how long it can stay secret from the cops.

Grab a pierogi or a pie, and get ready for things to get crazy. The Granny Gang War starts here!

It has been a long time since we've had an update here, and we're very sorry for that. Life conspired against our little micro press and we're now in the process of figuring out some details behind the scenes. We should have news and more calls for submissions for everyone soon.

Bushmead is going to have someone at FanExpo! Sort of. The artist behind the upcoming Loch comic will be at Fan Expo this weekend in Toronto at booth A272. Check him out, buy some of his art, and learn more about Loch!

We are happy to announce the creation of the Bushmead street team. The reality of running a micro publisher in this day and age is that you're always trying to figure out and grab every edge you can get. In light of that, we've got to figure out ways to keep ourselves growing, and to spread the word about our projects.

Each member of the Bushmead Street team will receive free e-copies of most Bushmead publications, and as we continue to grow we'll have special, members only, contests.

If you're interested in joining, please send an email with the subject "STREET TEAM" along with a couple of sentences about your interest.

We are very excited to announce the first comic from Bushmead Publishing. This is the first of several expansions we're planning and one of several projects that are coming soon. Loch is an experiment in the intersection of the literary and the visual, and will be debuting at FanExpo, and will be available soon.

Today is a day that we take time aside to thank our dads for raising us with love, laughter and an eye on the thermostat. Because I live so far away from my own father, I struggled to think of something special that I could give to him across the geographical distance besides a phone call and an “I love you” scrawled in a drug store card.

I pride myself in giving good gifts – not costly trinkets, but something that shows I know about the person receiving the gift, that I care deeply about him or her. I’d done the writing a poem thing in the past and didn’t want to be redundant. So, my father, who was always sitting under his reading lamp in an arm chair, hours after I was in bed every night when I was a kid, received from me this year a list. A list of books that I have loved through the years and know he will love too. These are the books that I recommended to my father, an inquisitive, loving, sometimes-serious Nova Scotian living in the prairies.

We are excited to unveil the cover for our next anthology, Another Place, forthcoming this spring. Look here for more info in the coming weeks on the book, its talented contributors, and where to buy it.

Another Place: Brief Disruptions

Worldly and otherworldly creatures look for love in some of the right places.

The leader of a grassroots uprising defies zer family and the pharmaceutical corporation they own.

A young woman leaves a very real part of herself behind to find freedom.

Curiosity grips and young man who feels socially disruptive desire for the first time.

An Irish house fairy remembers old magic to find her way home.

And more…

This collection of short stories set in both known and unknown locales explores the nature of love, desire, sexuality and gender through narrative and speculative fiction. Our assumptions about humanity as gendered and sexual beings are thrown into sharp relief by otherworldly settings allowing what we take for granted to be explored in other contexts. In a world in which anything is possible, what happens to constructions of love and gender? How do we negotiate freedom and identity in differing social settings? All of these stories grapple with these important issues, and more, in disruptive, enlightening narratives.

Here’s a taste of what you’ll find inside the covers of our recent publication, Heroes. Look out for our next two anthologies, forthcoming this spring and summer.

Heroes have come under fire lately. The media shows us the worst aspects of humanity every day, and so seldom do we see a hero that isn’t plastered up on a movie screen and serving as so much escapist pablum. Politicians throw around the word hero like it has lost all meaning, and they engage in bloody debate over whether an individual is a hero or a monster. In this era of near zero privacy, we see so many heroic offerings that are served up quickly only take a schadenfreude laden fall from succumbing to the fringe benefits that public attention so often brings.

But we still want there to be heroes. With how bad our economy is, how terrifying evil has become in its many forms around the world, so many of us are crying out for a hero. And wouldn’t that be nice, to have someone fly in with a billowing cape and winning grin?

Throughout all of this, we’ve mixed up what it means to be a hero and, I think, forgotten that a hero can come from anywhere. You can be someone’s hero if you’re a shoulder to cry on when they need it, by giving money to someone in need, by taking the mere moment out of your day to treat someone else with decency. Something so simple as picking up the phone for a friend can be an unknown heroic act; if the call is a last ditch attempt to reach someone, anyone.

We often do not give enough credit to the men and women who are every day heroes - the ones who spend their lives fighting their instincts of self-preservation. This may be the truest measure of heroism the way we commonly talk about it, the willingness to risk and sacrifice for the good of others. Certainly, it is one of the hardest questions we have to grapple with. Most of us will assert, when ensconced in the quotidian safety of our day-to-day, that we would gladly put our lives on the line for some greater good. This is so much more difficult to do when we find ourselves in the position.

Despite all this melancholy about the state of the world and the complaints that maybe all the heroes are gone, there’s still hope. We still see some of us willing to put aside our petty squabbles and fear. Maybe that’s all it takes, those few bright sparks that put themselves on the line to stand against violence, prejudice, and hatred. Even with flaws, and flawed heroes truly are the most compelling, there are those who will light their souls on fire and hold back all the darkness in the world.

So, now we invite you to take a gander through this collection. Within these pages are different takes on heroes and heroism. There are big damn heroes and every day heroes. There are sword-wielding women and gun-toting men, there are people scraping to get by and members of royalty, there are those looking for a job and there is even a young man wearing his underpants over his bluejeans. Every one of them is a hero, and I hope this inspires you to your own acts of heroism, big or small.

We are happy to announce our upcoming publication, Heroes: A Phoenix Quill Anthology. Here at Bushmead, we are collaborating with The Phoenix Quill writers group to create a collection of short stories centered on the theme of heroes.

The stories will discuss what a hero is, what it means to be a hero, and what heroes mean to us; what is a hero’s role, in what ways might they manifest, and how can the role be problematic or subverted.

With the ubiquity of heroes in our lives as of late (see Marvel’s recent Hollywood coups, the many popular DC television shows, etc), they are clearly important figures in our current cultural consciousness. In this climate, we often forget that not all heroes wear capes or have powers, and there are everyday heroes around us all the time. The writers from The Phoenix Quill are taking up the significance of this figure and placing it in a variety of contexts to create a collective commentary on the topic.

Today we are also announcing the public release of the cover design for Heroes. The cover was designed by Adam Alldis, who will also be contributing a story to the collection.

The projected release date for Heroes is October 27th. Keep an eye on our blog for details and where you can pick up a copy as the release date nears.